The newest member of our family...

Easter!

So, with covid-19 in full bloom and being stuck at home, I thought we might need diversions. Enter our new Veiltail Betta fish. He was quite affordable at Petco...and then we paid for all his stuff.

A new pad

A friend gifted us a 1 gallon tank. So we upgraded it with a heater, thermometer, and some live plants.

Who knew?

I never knew that betta could run $30. Some of the more fancy ones I could understand, but I was just looking for cheap.

I think the most expensive stuff was probably the moss balls and the rock with the plant growing out of it. Each was about $10, and the fish itself was about $4. So, all things considered we paid about $50 for everything except the tank setup.

Purchased items

Betta fish $4

Small yellow plant $5

Baby moss (live) $10

Rock with plant (live) $10

Thermometer $4

Heater $13

Betta pellets $5

Bloodwork treats $5

Water conditioner $6

Tank with light & aerator $0

Gravel $0

About $65 for my kid's first pet.

Keeping track

So, this pet thing will be a new adventure for all of us. We will be learning as we go. B-chan, the Monkey, and the Elf have never had a pet before. I, on the other hand, am 0-1 as far as Betta fish are concerned.

I am hoping that this teaches my littles about responsibility even more than the plants will. A garden is nice, and it's living but there's something about having an actual animal that takes it up a level. We'll see.

Closet Transformation

So, I live in this tiny little house in desperate need of storage. Because, let's face it, in comparison to my grand parents, we're hoarders.

That's to say nothing of the lack of thought in the construction of the house. The closet in talking about is already a galactic undestatement for awkward.

I kid not; this is the floor plan of the closet. The front part is about 36" across. Depth is little more than one foot. So, you can see my dilemma. Figuring out something that would actually work took a while, but I settled on these.

I ended up stacking 2 units, which still leaves some wasted space. It's still better than it was. My goal was to get things off the floor right at the door of the closet which pushed another door (think main walkway) shut. My second goal was to get the elf's things where she could reach them.

Let me just say that right now the kid's room is the most peaceful room in the house.

Here is an awful before picture. I tried using command strips, as evidenced by the pink spot on the wall. As messy as it looks, it's actually clean. Think: jackets, sweaters, 2 backpacks, and a box of night undies piled in the closet doorway.

I wanted to provide a clothes bar for the elf and shelves where she could reach her hair supplies. The cubbies do that and allow him to have some space for his things as well.

To start the project, I took everything out except the support for the bar and shelf... It took over our living room.

Then, I measured and installed where I would mount wood to support a low shelf and anchor the lower unit.

I installed the shelf with one support because it is so short.

Next, I installed a piece of wood as wide as the unit to anchor the top.

I also wanted to make sure the unit was sturdy, so I applied mending brackets to the back. (Note: don't try to move the unit by the front once attached.)

I probably did this the hard way, but I installed the low bar last. I really just wanted to be done with it, though.

So, after about a day of cleaning, a day of work, and a day of shopping for baskets, I can say I am done and pleased with the results.

Also, I decided to get a longer board for the shelf and add a couple shelves for the bookshelves the kids have.

Here's hers,

And his.

Here's the cute storage unit I found at TJ Maxx (HomeGoods) with some baskets from HomeGoods and Ross.

I also used some of the baskets to organize the livingroom bookshelf, too.

Once again the before...

And the after, for comparison...

What's in my mom purse 2019

Mom Purse Contents

So, now that my kids no longer need to have me carrry their stuff or a change of clothes, The contents of my purse have changed once again.

Small Purse- This purse is 4 way convertible. I can use it by the top handle, backpack straps, shoulder strap or as a cross body:

• Aldi quarter holder (among other assorted keychains)
• Keys
• wallet
• sunglasses
• handkerchief
• hand towel
• Membership/discount cards

• blotting paper
• hand sanitizer
• Extra Cell battery
• Double Usb wall charger

• Black tech pouch: Bluetooth headset, Micro to Usb-c adapter, Usb to micro memory key, Usb cords(Usb-c and micro)

• Panda Pouch: Ikoo detangling brush, claritin (allergy meds), Flonase (nose spray), albuterol (asthma meds), after bite plus (bug bite ointment), deodorant, underarm wipes

• Pen Pouch: active stylus, 5-in-1 pen (dark colors), 5-in-1 pen (light colors), 0.3 pencil, 0.2 pencil, eraser, correction tape, frixion pen: 0.7 blue and purple, sticky tabs, extra lead 0.3 and 0.2

Tote- My bag is a Patricia Nash distressed leather tote:

• Headphones
• bible
• notebook
• planner-personal size

• rosewater body spray
• bunny lotion bottle
• scarf
• eraser
• glasses
• Black bag: foldable keyboard, phone stand

• Pink Tech bag: small notebook, microphone, audio cable, audio jack adapter, book light, headphone splitter, tape measure, usb memory key

• Pink pencil case: frixion pens and highligters for my planner

• Pink 2-part bag: Nail file/nail kit, lip balm w/ sunscreen, blistex, sunscreen/face stick, hand sanitizer, nose spray, blister defense, mirror, lint remover, baby wipes, eye drops, extra earrings, bobby pins

• Pink mouth bag: toothpaste, sonic toothbrush, mini flossers, dental floss, mouthwash,tongue scraper, towel, cup

Dr. Seuss Character Tutorial: Thing 1/2

Thing 1/2 tutorial

I am sorry to say that I have no before pictures of my materials

Materials: 

• Feather boa
• beanie (mine was thrifted)
• Hot glue and  gun
• Felt
• Fabric paint pen (bold point)
• safety pins

Steps for assembly:

I purchased a beanie in blue for my daughter and my son from my local thrift store. I also used Michaels's price match policy to get the online price at hobby lobby for the feather boas. All I had to do was show them the price at the register. I got the one with actual feathers. This post was my inspiration.

Once I had the materials, I plugged in my glue gun and started gluing the boa to the beanie. At this point, I must advise caution because I burned my fingers with the hot glue. it seeps through the knit pretty easily. Also, I recommend glueing the string that holds the feathers in the boa to the beanie for strength. If this project is being completed by a child, I recommend adult supervision.

Once my beanies were done, I tried them on my models, the monkey and the elf.

For the patches, I purchased the larger piece of craft felt and a fabric paint marker in black. At Michael's there were several available. I chose the large one with the "bold" tip. Using a pencil with 2mm lead, I traced a salad size plate (after checking proportion) onto the white felt. Then, I penciled in the design. Technically you could go crazy with this and make it look exactly like how the things look. I wasn't being that careful, so I just wrote in "Thing 1/2" on each piece of felt and traced it in the black. The last thing I did was cut it out.

Finally I pinned the patches to the front of red clothes. The Monkey will be wearing it pinned to an exercise shirt, as it is a PE day for him in school. He will be wearing plain red exercise shorts to complete the outfit.

For my daughter, I purchased a red dress from the thrift store. I personally like Savers because I do not have to search through everything. They separate by size and offer a 20% off coupon that you can use on the spot if you donate.

I decided to pin it to the inside using 4 safety pins. Alternatively you could baste it to the clothing, which would still allow for easy removal.

Here is the Elf holding her dress and hat.

A fun day apple picking

I wanted to experience apple season in all its glory,  so we packed up the mom-mobile and headed to Yucaipa.

Goal: pick our own apples and press our own cider.

Total cost: 5lbs apples $15, gallon of self-pressed cider $25 (glass), gas for the trip, dinner ~$30-40.

We opened the trip with a picnic lunch. We are used to hot California October weather, so you can imagine our surprise to find it windy and cloudy. It was cold during that part, but I knew it'd warm up after we hiked up to apple trees and cranked the press a few times.

After eating lunch, we walked up and across the road to the u pick orchard. It is worth noting that some areas of the orchard are roped off and labeled off limits. 

We listened to the apple picking instructions and dutifully stood in line to get our bag. You have a choice of 5 or 10 pounds. Our bag cost us $15 and some change. 
Next we hiked, yes hiked, up to the apple trees that we chose.

And the monkey is wrapped in a towel because his jacket was too thin.

We chose galas and picked from the trees. We lifted the kids to pick, too.

We paid for our apples and hiked back to the car to put them away. On the way there was this cute shabby chic country apple sign. Our resulting pictures will make a cute holiday card (if it weren't for that towel!?!)

The apple press usually gets quite a line.

Picking out our apples to press.

The bucket is full of water for washing the apples. 

The kids helped put in the apples. 

The grinding process was hard to capture. Basically, you turn the crank on the side to crush the apples into the bucket. Then you turn the part pictured until it's too hard to turn. This presses the plate down and the cider comes out into your bucket.

To give the kids a chance to help, they have a bar that you can use to help press. The kids can help pass the ends.

Lift the press to empty the last of the cider into the bucket.

Bring the crushed apple leftovers to the chute and wash out the bag.

Filter and funnel your cider into your jar.

Enjoy!

This was a great day trip that wasn't too expensive. All in all, I probably would have dressed warmer,  but I would totally repeat. I hope to make this a family tradition. It's a great family memory.